Willis
Dear readers,
to those of you wish to understand the history of the African American name, welcome to the second publication of Black Ghetto Baby Names, a site ironically specified to grow pride for the naming conventions of our people.
For many of the white folk out there, certain names certainly resonate as black names: “DeWayne”, “Shaniqua”, “Shanene”, etcetera. However, very few historically black names resonate through the American conscious as “Willis” So today the topic is Willis
The name Willis
“What you talkin’ bout, Willis?”
The name “Willis” is only a recent addition to the set of historically black names, and it may even be a stretch that anyone identifies it as among the “Black Ghetto Baby Names”. As far as I can place it, the name was introduced into our national vernacular by the actor Todd Bridges playing Willis Jackson on “Diff’rent Strokes.” However, the name was in use by famous blacks long before that time.
Willis Johnson – Inventor of the mixing machine. (1884)
Willis created an egg beater “wherewith eggs, batter, and other similar ingredients used by bakers, confectioners, &c., can be beaten or mixed in the most intimate and expeditious manner.”
Mr. Johnson was just one cog in the great machinery of African Americans who have contributed to the science and engineering of the culinary arts in the United States. Another notable, George Washington Carver, was the inventor of both the potato battery and peanut butter.
As for the history of the name Willis itself, it is no invention of the African American community. As you may recognize from the famous actor Bruce Willis, the name originated in Britain. The family originated in Berkshire, England, where they were granted a seat at Hungerford Park by King Charles I. The first known Willis in the new world was William Willis in Quidividi, Newfoundland, in 1703.
Epilogue
As we have learned, the names we hear around us today, shouted between the corridors and out the portals of the world and into the street, are really just the leaves of an enormous and dense tree of human names. As you might find out, no name is purely “White” or “black” but a mottled quilt of all the colors in the world. “India”, is that name truly black? Or “Jasmine”, which according to Freakonomics is the most popular African American name? The human pool of names is rich and diverse, and here at Black Ghetto Baby Names we simply hope to explore those leaves whose colors were born a little more brown in this recent day and age.
